The social benefits and economic costs of taxation

The average for the five the family and church play a large role in meet- low-tax countries is about 29%; the average for ing the needs of citizens; and 4) “social demo- the five high-tax countries is 47%, almost 60% cratic welfare states,” basically the Scandinavian greater than the low-tax countries. [...] Four indicators are shown, as illustrat- the elderly in Canada brings down the average for ed in Table 2. The number in parentheses beside low-tax countries); nevertheless, a much lower each indicator refers to the column number of percentage of the elderly live in poverty in Nor- the indicator in the Appendix: Comparing So- the social benefits and economic costs of ta x ation 13 table 2. Relief f [...] In Finland, by contrast, social cohesion; they lead to worse health and the richest 10% receive only 5.6 times as much of personal security outcomes; they lead to the the national income as the poorest 10%, about withdrawal of the haves from the life of the one-third the American multiple. [...] The rate of household saving in the Nordic coun- The unemployment rate in Anglo-Ameri- tries is higher than that in the Anglo-American can countries in 2004 was lower than that of countries. [...] Another is the Human Cap- the 0.9% of the U. S., Finland’s 2.5% is sharply ital Index, which is made up of the literacy rate higher than that of the U. S. Measured by the as a percent of population, secondary school inward FDI performance index, of which over 1 enrolment as percent of age group, and tertiary means that a country attracts more inflow of in- enrolment as percent of age group.